Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Self-destruction

Turkish man living in Germany
asks police to protect him
from wife’s demands for sex.

It seems to me the Republican Party is on a veritable blaze of self-destruction, so let ‘em keep talking, I say. Some of what they are proposing is rather petty and not really important, but virtually everything they are now promoting does not bode well for them in the future, unless, of course, the future is to be directed by apparent morons from another reality. Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois, for example, wants to abolish road signs that say projects were funded by the stimulus because that is propaganda. Mike Lee of Utah says that child labor laws are unconstitutional, as is Federal disaster relief. The state of Utah is now debating whether they should have an official state handgun. You know, if states have official birds, flowers, and such, why not an official gun? Maybe all states should have an official gun but it seems pretty silly to me, especially after the recent shootings in Arizona. Of course some in Congress now believe they should carry guns to work and at least one has suggested a law preventing anyone from possessing a gun within 1000 feet of a Congressperson. There is talk of abolishing oversize clips for handguns that allow shooters 30 or more shots at a time. The NRA opposes this on the grounds that having such clips is perfectly okay because it helps homeowners protect themselves. This is an argument so pathetically feeble it is laughable, but they might, as usual, get their way. I mentioned before the fact that game bird hunters have to use a special plug in their shotguns that allow them only three shells instead of five or more. Apparently this is to protect game birds by making it more difficult for hunters to kill more than they should. Interesting, isn’t it, that we have guns laws to protect pheasants and ducks, but not to protect humans. This is all great stuff, much of it pretty silly, but not terribly bad all in all compared to other Republican proposals.

Newt Gingrich, the poster child for hypocrisy, has now suggested we do away with the Environmental Protection Agency. He will say anything to get attention with little regard for the consequences. But Gingrich is mild compared with Rand Paul who is calling for a 500 billion dollar reduction in spending. He proposes cutting entire agencies like Education, Energy, and I don’t know what all. This is a super idea at a time of massive unemployment, especially as he would also do away with food stamps and other humanitarian aids to our citizens. Republicans started off, you might recall, promising to cut 100 billion from the budget, and have now had to back off even that as unrealistic. Of course they are still talking about repealing health care when the majority of citizens would much rather they work on creating jobs. They seem to be completely oblivious to reality when it comes to what they are proposing. They keep insisting “The American Public” wants this or that when, in fact, it is usually the opposite of what the public wants (doing away with Roe vs Wade and DADT, for example). Their spokesman, Ryan, who gave the rebuttal to the State of the Union speech, wants to abolish Social Security for those under 55, do away with Medicare and Medicaid, and other policies that help ordinary citizens, policies that even some Republicans refuse to acknowledge. Republicans have now allowed Michele (Babbling) Bachmann to augment Ryan’s rebuttal with a special Tea Party rebuttal, even though it is obvious she has little idea of what she is talking about (the Founding Fathers abolished slavery).

I said before that I thought Obama would eventually appear to be the only adult standing after all the Tea Party rubbish continued for a while. It seems, at the moment at least, that is what is happening. Obama is standing tall and Republicans are self-destructing at what I believe to be a rather alarming rate. If this continues I doubt Obama will have little trouble getting re-elected in 2012 and I’m pretty sure the Democrats will once again have the House and Senate. But speaking of other realities, think of Michele Bachmann as President, Christine O’Donnell as vice-president, Sarah Palin as Secretary of State, Sharron Angle as Secretary of Defense, with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as chief advisors to the White House. Wheee!

LKBIQ:
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.
Robert Louis Stevenson